Businesses trying to claim tariff refunds run into problems, as government officials briefly pause access to portal

By Victor Reklaitis

Experts also say many refund requests have been successfully submitted

So how are the tariff refunds going? Last year, Canada's government placed anti-tariff billboards in numerous American cities - including this one in Miramar, Fla.

It wasn't all smooth sailing this week as the federal government started the process of accepting claims for massive amounts of tariff refunds.

Business leaders reported instances of error messages and delays along with slow tech-support responses from the government, although some also said filing for refunds went well on Monday, the day U.S. Customs and Border Protection launched a new refund portal.

In a statement on Wednesday, CBP said it halted access to the portal for a brief period on Monday morning, without giving further details.

"CBP made system updates to optimize processing, briefly pausing access the morning of April 20, but service was promptly restored with no delays," a spokesperson said.

The refunds have been in the works for two months, since the Supreme Court's Feb. 20 ruling that President Donald Trump exceeded his authority in using the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 to implement most of his tariffs.

The launch of the refund portal was "a mixed bag for small businesses," Dan Anthony, executive director of the advocacy group We Pay the Tariffs, said in a statement on Monday.

"Many in our coalition report challenges getting their online accounts in order to file. Among those who were ready to file today, some reported a seamless process while others received error messages and delays," said Anthony, whose group has opposed the Trump administration's import taxes.

Business owner Sarah Wells, who is part of the We Pay the Tariffs group, echoed Anthony's view that Monday's kickoff was a mixed bag.

Before Monday, CBP had said importers of record should expect to submit CSV files, meaning files with "comma-separated values." Wells, whose Virginia-based business is called Sarah Wells Bags, said CBP's CSV template on Monday failed to download properly and wouldn't open correctly for her.

However, Wells had participated in a CBP webinar last week, so she knew how to create a properly formatted file herself, and she quickly made her submission on Monday morning. She's hoping to get about $20,000 refunded, along with interest.

Wells said she's part of a network of a dozen female business owners, some of whom got error messages before eventually having success. One business owner "was trying different methodologies, and it ended up just being waiting and trying over and over again, and it eventually took and didn't show any failed attempts," she said.

"Setting up the ACE account was actually pretty complicated," Wells added, referring to CBP's Automated Commercial Environment system for processing refund requests. "Doing things like keeping it active so it doesn't deactivate and understanding how to use it were pretty tricky. So as someone who's really concerned about small businesses - and how this has impacted all of us as a whole - I'm still worried that there's probably a good number of businesses that haven't even attempted this yet."

Kelsey Christensen, a trade attorney at law firm Clark Hill, also noted problems with ACE accounts.

"Certain importers of record reported an inability to log in to their ACE accounts or have had difficulty ensuring that their accounts are properly set up within the past two weeks," Christensen told MarketWatch in an email on Monday. "Attempts to resolve these technical concerns with ACE Help Desk support have been slow, and certain login or other ACE account issues for importers remain unresolved."

But Christensen also noted that "many refund requests have been successfully submitted."

When asked for comment about the number of users seeking refunds on Monday, a CBP spokesperson didn't provide any figures. The spokesperson shared a statement noting that importers and brokers can visit CBP's website for resources and step-by-step guidance.

Read more: Tariff refunds are coming. Here's who will get them first.

-Victor Reklaitis

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04-22-26 1427ET